Effect of metacognitive reading strategies on improving concept understanding in high school biology students

Abstract

The main purpose of this project was to determine how specific reading strategies impacted student understanding of genetics, evolution, populations, and ecology in high school biology. Forty-seven students in three achievement levels were tracked for changes in their abilities to answer high-order questions, as well as changes in their attitudes and motivations. Teacher attitude and motivations were also measured. The study revealed that students showed overall improvement in high-order thinking compared to non-treatment, and that student attitudes and motivations improved slightly during the project. Teacher attitudes and motivations improved as students progressed through the treatment.